The winged form holds a shining heart cupped in its hands — the perfect metaphor, says David Rubin, curator of contemporary art, for the work in “San Antonio Collects: Contemporary.”

The latest in a series of shows highlighting works from private collections, the exhibit features 96 objects by 71 artists from 30 private collections, including pieces by nationally and internationally known artists such as Keith Haring, Donald Judd, Jeff Koons, Leonardo Drew and Yoshitomo Nara. Fifteen San Antonio artists are included in the global mix.

“Contemporary art is a gift,” says Rubin, a dapper figure with a snowy white beard and rounded wire frame glasses. “It's about issues of our time that most people care about or have some feeling about or relationship with.”

Chia's sculpture is also an apt metaphor for another aspect of the show: an homage to Artpace founder Linda Pace, who died in 2007. The renowned arts patron, who was also an artist, assembled a collection of more than 500 objects now administered by the Linda Pace Foundation.

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As the exhibit evolved, “we realized Linda Pace was a real trailblazer who set the standard hopefully others aspire to,” Rubin says. “So on one hand we're honoring Linda and her memory and the incredible legacy that she left us and at the same time looking at what's really out there in our city.”

Pace's presence is felt throughout the show — not only in the 14 works from the Linda Pace Foundation, but in pieces from other collections as well. There are two works by Pace herself, including a drawing and an assemblage; a purse portrait of her by Chuck Ramirez; and a maquette of an installation created in her memory by Jesse Amado; as well as a host of works by artists that have held residencies at Artpace.

“What I felt when I walked through the show is that I could see Linda everywhere,” says Steven Evans, executive director and curator of the Linda Pace Foundation. “I think her influence really is apparent in the selections that David made.”

The pieces reveal two aspects of Pace's collecting, Rubin says. One is a social activist bent. The other “is that she obviously gravitated towards work that is very magical, ephemeral, spiritual and deals with perception,” he says.

The pieces by Hodges and Eliasson, a Danish-Icelandic artist, are both interactive works that incorporate mirrors. Hodges' “unfold (more)” is a mirror mosaic on canvas that fractures reflected images. Eliasson's “Colour motoric entrance” is a sculpture constructed with mirrors and colored filters that changes depending on the viewer's perception.

“So really, the artwork is only complete when you interact with it,” Rubin says.

Ross Bleckner's “Galaxy Painting,” a scattering of stars against a deep blue background, and Fernández's “Burnout,” a wall installation made of glass cubes that suggests a sun, take a cosmic view, while Willie Cole's “Dance Trance I” is firmly grounded. The piece — iron scorch marks and parts on canvas — references the artist's African American heritage.

The works in the show are grouped by collector or collection. It's a diverse lot that includes the Alturas Foundation, which funded “Makin' Hay,” the public art installation of monumental sculpture by Tim Otterness at Hardberger Park; the Harmon and Harriet Kelley Foundation for the Arts, known for one of the best collections of African American art in the country; and Claudia Huntington and Marshall Miller, who loaned SAMA large scale figurative sculpture for the show, including the piece by Chia and Polish artist Igor Mitoraj's “Sonno Screpolato (Cracked Sleep),” a bronze of a fragmented face.

Businessman Guillermo Nicolas is among the individual collectors tapped for the show. The pieces he loaned the museum include an assemblage by Pace, a friend and mentor.

“When I first started talking art with Linda 20 years ago, there were maybe three or four people collecting contemporary art in the whole city, and 20 years later for her to have seen the long list of collectors and very good collection of art in our city, I think, would have made her cry,” Nicolas says. “I think it would have made her very happy.”

The piece by Pace from Nicolas' collection is “I Smell a Rat,” an assemblage of several pairs of hand figurines given to Pace by her brother, a hand surgeon. A white plastic rat figure is hidden behind the tchotchkes, most of them also white.

“That piece I loved not only because visually it's beautiful, but I loved it because all those ceramic hands were given to her by her brother... so it was very personal,” Nicolas says.

Other pieces from Nicolas' collection include a work by New York artist Chakaia Booker and San Antonio artists Katie Pell and Clare Little. He was especially pleased that Rubin selected the work by Little — a white plaster sculpture of a piglike animal decorated like a wedding cake with delicate florettes.

“I took a page from Linda on really starting to focus — especially in the last five years — on emerging artists, because they really are the life's blood and the fresh blood to the art scene,” he says. “It's easy to buy what everybody else has. It's a little harder to be more of a trailblazer and invest and believe in young artists who may or may not ever become famous. That's not the point of my collecting. My point is to just find things that I love.”

All of the works in the grouping from Nicolas' collection are characterized by a certain whimsy. The pieces from the collection of Chris and Georgia Erck, such as Robert Pruitt's “Dookey Trope” — a necklace made of gleaming handcuffs that references the heavy gold chains of '80s hip-hop culture — have a harder edge. Meanwhile, the works from the Dicke Collection demonstrate an eclecticism with Nara's painting “Pup King,” a cartoonish image that evokes childhood innocence, acting as an emotional counterpoint to Eric Fischl's devastating “Ten Breaths: Tumbling Woman,” a bronze of a falling female nude inspired by the 9/11 attacks.

“San Antonio has just been growing leaps and bounds in the contemporary art world, so we really wanted to see what people are collecting,” Rubin says. “I think (the exhibit) gives us a sense that there has been real growth in the support for contemporary art.”

“San Antonio Collects: Contemporary” continues through July 1 at the San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones Ave. 210-978-8100.